Almost two thirds of councils describe their need for affordable
housing as 'severe' amid rise in homelessness, according to a new
report by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and the
Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE).
The report, 'Delivering affordable homes in a changing
world', is the fourth in a series of research collaborations
between the TCPA and the APSE, looks at the effectiveness of
national housing and planning policy from the perspective of UK
local authorities, highlighting a growing need for affordable
housing.
Key findings of the research were:
- 63% of councils describe that their need for affordable housing
is 'severe' and -- 35% describe their need as 'moderate'.
- 71% of councils in England and 75% in Wales say that levels of
statutory homelessness have increased in their local authority area
over the past year.#
- 57% of councils in England and 62% in Wales say that rough
sleeping has increased in their local authority area over the past
year.
- 43% of councils in England and 62% of councils in Wales say
that their levels of 'hidden homeless' has increased over the past
year.
- 62% of councils say that their main model of delivering social
and affordable housing is through the planning process via s106
agreements.
- 30% of councils in England say that permitted development is
reducing their ability to build affordable homes; 4% said that
permitted development has had a positive impact on their ability to
build affordable homes and 54% said it has had no impact.
The report further underlines the case for council housing made
by ARCH in our paper "Social housing we can all be proud of" and
among the key recommendations in the report is a recommendation
that:
"The government should respect the principles of
self-financing by returning control to local authorities over their
investment plans, rents and assets including extending the budget
commitment to lifting the HRA borrowing cap on councils in areas of
'high affordability pressures' to all authorities with housing
stock and enabling councils to retain 100% of their Right to Buy
receipts to reinvest into building new affordable housing"
Prior to publication of the report, ARCH Chief Executive, John
Bibby, participated in a high-level roundtable discussion with the
report authors to discuss the research findings and help frame the
report's recommendations.
Commenting on the launch of the report to an invited audience at
Portcullis House John said:
"I welcome this report, the findings of which underline and
reinforce the case ARCH has been making for investment in council
housing through our own document 'Social housing we can all be
proud of'. If the Prime Minister is serious when she says she want
to commit to 'a new generation of council housing' then the
government must re-commit to and re-instate the principles of the
HRA self-financing settlement introduced with all-party support
under the Localism Act 2011"